The Hybrid Library and the DNER: a Discussion

Stephen Pinfield

DNER: overview

Distributed National Electronic Resource• Umbrella for the informational activity of JISC

(Joint Information Systems Committee)• Two main components:

– managed collection of information resources

– coherent information environment

• Supported by – advisory services

– preservation services, etc.

DNER: definition

“… a managed environment for accessing quality information resources on the Internet which are available from many sources.”

DNER: aspirations

• To provide the world’s high quality information to staff and students in higher and further education at any time and anywhere.

• To be the leading innovator in UK education in the field of digital information provision of information and take an influential role in developing the UK’s learning and research agenda.

• To take a leading role in stimulating development both here and overseas.

Context

• Incremental development– content– structures

• Under-developed consultation & market research

• ‘Information brandscape’ - incoherence• Need for systemic coherence• Need to engage with learning and teaching

c.f. Hybrid Library projects

Global

Personal

Community

Strategic

Institutional

General information environment

Resource spaces

“The DNER challenge is to weave rich information and learning resources in the fabric of the web.” (Lorcan Dempsey)

• A managed strategic resource• A ‘leveraged’ institutional and community

resource • A discovered resource

Collections

• scholarly journals• monographs• textbooks • abstracts• manuscripts• maps • music scores

• still images• geospatial images • vector and numeric

data• moving picture

collections• sound collections

Architecture

Middleware

Content/service delivery

Fusion services

Presentation

Hybrid Library projects

Have investigated:

• Authentication (‘middleware’)

• Presentation layer

• ‘Fusion’ technologies

• Content creation

• Personalisation

DNER technical review: need to contribute

Technical review

• Technologies– Z39.50– LDAP– OpenURLs– Other protocols / APIs– etc.

• In-house v. commercial– VDX (Fretwell-Downing)– MetaLib/SFX (Ex Libris)– WebExpress (OCLC)– etc.

Digital Library of North Rhine Westphalia

http://www.hbz-nrw.de/DigiBib/

National and local

• Is the DNER a national hybrid library?– Similarities of approach– Similar technologies

• Institutional and national services– National services - economy of effort, market power– Institutional ‘portal’ still required– Institutional users and national services

• Working together– DNER as service provider– DNER as service enabler...

e.g. RDN-i

DNER strategy

• Collection development and management

• Service delivery

• Development

• Preservation

• Communications

Investigations

• Content mapping study – procedures, practices, actors - completed

• Collections subject mapping exercise – collections against subject benchmarks to identify gaps - being

commissioned

• Service delivery framework– pattern, governance and coherence of service - commissioned from

CHEMS

• Technical architecture– identify broad architecture and technologies - commissioned from UKOLN

• Presentation requirements– being specified

DNER Office

DirectorLorcan Dempsey

Assistant Director Collections and communication

Alicia Wise

Assistant Director Development

(Vacant)

Assistant Director PreservationNeil Beagrie

Collections Groups

Communications Group

Programme Management / Development

Group

RDNC Resources and Admin

Group

Preservation

Names

eLib Hybrid Library DNER

DNER: Suggestions for a new name please!

Stephen.Pinfield@Nottingham.ac.uk